@HiddenCash scavenger hunt draws a Twitter flock

Updated 8:27 am, Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Photo: Sergio Loza, Associated Press

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This image provided by Sergio Loza shows Loza holding up an envelope that had cash hidden in it in San Francisco, on Sunday, May 25, 2014. Loza followed the clues from a Twitter user using the handle @HiddenCash to find the money. The mysterious person has been hiding money throughout the city since Friday that's leading scores on a scavenger hunt.

The hidden cash frenzy has San Francisco buzzing. The idea, as you've probably heard, is that a mysterious benefactor posts clues on his Twitter account, @HiddenCash, about where he has placed envelopes with cash - typically $100. Find it and it's yours.

He was all over the city Tuesday, from Pier 39 to Lombard Street to the Palace of Fine Arts and back. And no sooner did the tweet go out than San Franciscans began to arrive at the sites by bike, car, cab and foot.

And if you think "frenzy" is too strong a term, you didn't see Erik Seidenglanz when he arrived at Lombard. He ran out of his house and sprinted up the hill - barefoot.

"I live like a block away," he said, still huffing and puffing. "I caught on to it on Twitter and ran up here immediately."

Alas, Seidenglanz was only one of about a dozen people combing the bushes. It was the same scene at the day's first drop, Pier 39.

"I really thought I was going to be the first one," said Nadia Abed, who saw the clue - "Hope the sea lions don't get it" - and immediately rushed to the tourist spot. "But when I got here, there were five or six people already."

More by C.W. Nevius

Yeah, good luck with that. The@HiddenCash account is blowing up on Twitter. Sunday night it had 11,000 followers, and by Monday it was up to 32,000. People like Ari Alexander, who is working on an app that pulls in social media eyeballs, was amazed. And it kept growing.

And as Tuesday went on, and@HiddenCash "drops" showed up at two, three and then four locations, the popularity skyrocketed. He had over 81,000 followers by 2:30 p.m., and the numbers were only growing.

"Maybe he is planning on selling the account," said Sinan Saka, who was peeking under stacks of Fisherman's Wharf tourist maps for an envelope. "He's said he's trying to reach 100,000 and that there is going to be a big drop when he gets there."

Although the user profile says this is "an anonymous social experiment for good," selling the account would make sense. The buyer would get a marketing tool already equipped with 100,000 subscribers. Thomas Speckman, who was carrying a camera while he poked around Pier 39 so he could record the moment, says he's working with a startup that wants to do something similar.

"I think this is the next generation of marketing," he said. "You are creating a real-world scenario based in virtual space."

OK, I didn't understand that, but it totally sounds like something a venture capitalist would invest in.

Not about money

If that's the case, and this is just a clever marketing ploy, it will be disappointing. If nothing else, this is a classic San Francisco spectacle - quirky, techie and witty. Who cares if you don't find the cash?

"It's not about the money," said Taylor Humphreys, who was being followed by a CNN cameraman as she rushed from park bench to trash bin. "It's about finding it."

Part of the fun was knowing the city. After reading the sea lion clue, one San Francisco-challenged responder confidently predicted the cash must be at the zoo. But residents knew it could only be the floating docks at Pier 39.

"The tourists are the ones looking at the sea lions," said Jack Hutton, who rode over on his bike. "And the locals are all looking under benches."

And although almost all of them struck out, the searchers remained remarkably cheerful.

"I love scavenger hunts," said Dannielle Kimple. "This is a great community thing, being part of something bigger than myself."

Kimple was so fired up that after she missed out at Pier 39 she spotted the Lombard Street clue and rushed over there.

"I got here in four minutes," she said. "As soon as I saw it, I jumped on my bike and jammed over here. Unfortunately, when I got here I saw about 20 people."

The numbers only grew as the day went on, although no one was exactly sure what the point was.

"Is this gentrification or are we playing a game?" asked Seidenglanz.

Barbecue can wait

Oh, who cares? Wolf Lembcke had just fired up the barbecue in Pacifica for an all-day slow smoker, when his daughter Deanna rushed in and announced that they all had to go to the city right away.